Summer Rain
by ziggy18
Summary: Oneshot Selpher. Just a little sad story. It's my first proper effort so I hope it's okay!


**Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters.**

**A/N: This is my first fanfic so I'm not really sure if its any good or not so any feedback would be much, much appreciated. Hope you enjoy!**

**Summer Rain**

****

It had started raining. Dark clouds had crept silently across the sky unnoticed by the small crowd assembled in the insignificant, gloomy cemetery. Soft raindrops fell on the recently laid earth as if to make sure it was set properly. The branches of the tall oak trees nearby bent and twisted in the ever increasing wind. The shadows contorted into painful shapes as though tortured by this hideous act of nature, the trees seemed to scream with the anguish of this terrible day.

Gradually the crowd started to disperse. Some wandered away slowly and alone, others scurried away in groups of twos and threes. Umbrellas were opened and huddled under and overcoats wrapped tightly around shivering bodies.

Eventually only one was left, silent tears mingling with the falling rain. She stood trembling due to both the cold and a deep despair which had wound its way so tightly around her heart.

"_I miss you."_

The wind only blew harder, the tree branches overhead swooped towards the earth dangerously close to her. No-one answered her, never again would she hear his voice, the one thing she yearned for more than anything else.

Memories all came flooding back, with an intensity so strong she felt the grip around her heart pull tighter and a wave of loud, bitter tears streamed down her face, mascara running in thick black rivers.

"_Why?"_

She remembered his face the first time the met at the communication tower in Dollet. That sneer that he had always tried to hide behind, but she had seen that deep down in the depths of those beautiful green eyes he was so much more than that arrogant idiot that was his constant façade.

"_You were such an idiot…" _

Green eyes which would never open again. Green eyes that would never again look into her own with a longing and a love so strong she thought that those moments could never end. Moments she never wanted to end. Moments she could not regain.

"_Why did you have to leave me?" _

After the war she had found him. The only one that truly wanted him back to Garden, yes the others all understood that he had been controlled and that it wasn't really Seifer that they had been fighting but merely an extension of Ultimecias own mind. But they hadn't wanted him, hadn't wanted to forgive him. To them he would always be the same old arrogant, obnoxious arse that had continually taunted and humiliated them for a long as they had known him. He had been sitting on a bench just inside the gates of Timber, staring into space. He hadn't even noticed at first that she had sat down next to him. After awhile she coughed a little to get his attention. Eventually turning he looked at her sadness etched into his features "What do you want messenger girl?" She replied with a hug, the first of many. After his initial shock those strong arms had wrapped around her so tightly. Those safe, strong arms.

"…_come back?"_

The day Seifer came back to Garden had been one of the happiest of her life. She had stayed with him in Timber for a few months (she had been long due some vacation time anyway) and it had taken that long to convince him to return with her to Balamb. Some days he would be overcome with enthusiasm for the idea and talked animatedly about rejoining SeeD and maybe even one day becoming a gun blade instructor. Then on other days he would remember everything that he had done, everyone that he had hurt and all those lives that he had helped to destroy and he would sink so far down into a depression so deep that Selphie couldn't lift him out of it for days on end.

"_Everything got so much better..."_

He had never been simple to live with. Even when he had returned to Garden and had lived there for almost a year he still fell into deep bouts of depression and it agonised Selphie to see him torture himself that way. Some said that he deserved it. Some said that he had should have been executed as soon as he was found. Outwardly he never let it show that the comments hurt him so much, but they hurt him more than a thousand gun blade wounds could ever do.

"_Why did it have to end now?"_

"I love you." The first time he ever said those words was sitting on Balamb beach watching the sunset. "I love you too, Seifer." She smiled and looked across to where Seifer had been sitting expecting him to be smiling back at her but he was no longer sitting there. She jumped up in surprise since she had not heard him move. The next thing she knew she was being scooped up into Seifer's arms and he kissed her passionately as the last dying embers of the sun's flames sunk into the horizon.

"_Just one more time…"_

Those kisses. Those sweet, chaste, loving kisses. Not expected from a man such as Seifer, Selphie had always expected him to be almost demanding, almost rough, but he wasn't like that. Maybe he had been before the war, but he had changed. He was a _good _person now He had never deserved…

"_Why you?…WHY!"_

Sometimes they would lie awake at night, limbs entwined, talking about their future together. They would stay at Garden for a few more years then start a new life in Fisherman's Horizon. It would be the perfect place to raise and family and start a small fishing business. That was Seifer's new dream, his new goal and Selphie could not help but think that now this was the dream she had never knew she had. They often fell asleep like that, Seifer holding her close protectively as though he would never let her go.

"_You let go."_

He had done it, finally managed to make it as a SeeD. No-one was more happy for him that her, although the whole gang were of course pleased. That night before the SeeD ball Seifer had taken her out for dinner to celebrate. After they had finished their meal Seifer knelt down on one knee and took out a ring from his pocket. "Selphie, would you…would you do me the honour and make me the most happiest man on this entire earth and be my wife?"

"_You made me the happiest woman on earth"_

A routine mission to Deling City came up, a security issue with the new President and his first public speech. SeeD was required to act as extra bodyguards, a number of assassination threats had been received and everything had to run smoothly, if any of the threats were carried through then it could have resulted in another war and nobody wanted that. Seifer was the first to volunteer for the job, he had been waiting for something like this to show how much he had changed and how much he could be trusted. Squall was unsure at first whether he should send him or not but Seifer had been adamant that he could do the job properly. Seifer was to be the first bodyguard and stand by the Presidents side at all times. Another three younger SeeDs were dispatched to guard surrounding areas. At first everything had seemed to go to plan. There had been no security breaches, no-one attempting to break into the presidential residence. However, no-one had checked the room at the top of the Deling City gateway. No-one thought to check the door had been kept locked and no-one remembered that it was accessible from the sewer system. No-one expected a lone gun-man to creep in earlier in the day and bide his time. The gunman didn't expect his aim to be so far off the mark.

Seifer never saw the bullet coming.

"_You held on for so long, why did you let go?…why did you let go?"_

Selphie took of her wedding ring and looked at the inscription on the inside _"My love, forever and always." _

"_Did you lie? Do you still love me?"_

She shed one final tear before turning to her waiting friend by the cemetery gates. They walked together slowly towards the waiting car which would take them back to Garden. The rain grew heavier, the sky grew darker and the wind whistled around the silent graves. A lone figure stood under a tall oak tree watching the retreating backs of the two women leaving the cemetery.

"_I love you, Selphie. Forever and always_."


End file.
